The trend in college cross country has been to make the courses more flat and hence make them easier.
But when Wolf Pack cross country coach Kirk Elias was tasked with charting the course for Friday’s Mountain West championships, he went in the opposite direction. He went hilly. He upped the difficulty.
“It’s going to be gnarly,” Nevada’s EmKay Myers said of the course at Montreux Golf and Country Club.
Said Elias, who walked Montreux a dozen times before settling on the rugged and fan-friendly course: “There are going to be people laid out afterwards. There’s going to be dead bodies strewn around.